ASWEMAKE, operator of same-day grocery delivery platform Q Market, has closed its Series C2 funding round. The round included both new and existing shares.

New strategic investors Solum, Xplor Investment, and Plan H Ventures joined as strategic investors, while Korea Alternative Investment Asset Management participated as a financial investor. Existing investor HGI continued its support with a third consecutive follow-on investment. This comes six months after the company raised 10 billion won ($6.8 million USD) in its Series C round in May 2025.

ASWEMAKE operates Q Market, an online grocery service that connects neighborhood supermarkets with nearby residents for same-day delivery. The O2O platform links consumers within a 3km radius to medium and large offline supermarkets, using urban grocery stores as delivery hubs to fulfill orders within three hours.

As of Q3 2025, Q Market has partnered with 1,840 grocery stores nationwide, surpassing 736.8 billion KRW ($504 million USD) in cumulative transaction volume. During the same quarter, consolidated revenue reached 27 billion KRW ($18.5 million USD), with standalone revenue hitting 18 billion KRW ($12.3 million USD). Operating profit grew more than threefold year-over-year to 3.8 billion KRW ($2.6 million USD) on a consolidated basis and 4.6 billion KRW ($3.1 million USD) on a standalone basis.

These results demonstrated strong potential and growth prospects to both financial and strategic investors. Solum particularly valued ASWEMAKE’s AI solution that automatically optimizes pricing based on real-time demand and inventory data in the volatile offline retail environment. The company’s rapid proof-of-concept success in the high-SKU, low-margin grocery distribution market reportedly influenced the strategic investment decision positively.

The two companies plan to jointly develop an integrated solution combining electronic shelf labels (ESL) with AI-based pricing technology, automating both the speed of price changes and accuracy of pricing decisions. This enables stores to reduce labor costs for price adjustments while simultaneously increasing sales and improving profitability.

ASWEMAKE is also gaining attention as a company aligned with the operations-focused business models that construction firms are increasingly pursuing through automated pricing and inventory decision-making in retail. Plan H Ventures and Xplor Investment—the corporate venture capital arms of Hoban Construction and GS Construction respectively—joined the investment based on strategic considerations spanning from pilot opportunities with retail affiliates to scalability in smart city and mixed-use developments. In an actual pilot project with Hoban Construction’s subsidiary Daea Cheongkwa to facilitate direct sales of kimchi cabbage during kimjang season, the company sold 3,600 boxes of Haenam salted cabbage in just eight days.

With the Series C2 funding, ASWEMAKE plans to develop and launch new businesses alongside its new strategic investors while advancing its value chain. The company will specifically invest in R&D for monetizing Q Market Partners—its data-integrated SaaS solution—including dynamic pricing AI leveraging transaction data, automated purchasing solutions, and monthly analytical reports supporting partner store operations. Additional funding will support initiatives to activate direct trade of agricultural, livestock, and seafood products.

Sooyoung Son, CEO of ASWEMAKE, stated, “We deeply appreciate HGI for their continued trust through three rounds of investment, and our new shareholders Solum, Xplor Investment, Plan H Ventures, and Korea Alternative Investment Asset Management for believing in our growth potential. By combining these partners’ technological capabilities with our sales infrastructure, we will create meaningful achievements both domestically and internationally through advanced New-Retail-Tech collaboration.”